Calls on the President to: (1) oppose any effort to transfer control of the Internet to the United Nations or any other international entity; and (2) advance the values of an open Internet in the broader trade and diplomatic conversations of the United States.
Applauds the President for: (1) asserting that the United States has no present intention of relinquishing its historic leadership role in Internet governance; and (2) articulating a vision of the Internet that places privatization over politicization.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 273 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 273
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United Nations and other
international organizations shall not be allowed to exercise control
over the Internet.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 17, 2005
Mr. Coleman submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United Nations and other
international organizations shall not be allowed to exercise control
over the Internet.
Whereas market-based policies and private sector leadership have allowed the
Internet the flexibility to evolve;
Whereas given the importance of the Internet to the global economy, it is
essential that the underlying domain name system and technical
infrastructure of the Internet remain stable and secure;
Whereas the Internet was created in the United States and has flourished under
United States supervision and oversight, and the Federal Government has
followed a path of transferring Internet control from the defense sector
to the civilian sector, including the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) with the goal of full privatization;
Whereas the developing world deserves the access to knowledge, services,
commerce, and communication, the accompanying benefits to economic
development, education, health care, and the informed discussion that is
the bedrock of democratic self-government that the Internet provides;
Whereas the explosive and hugely beneficial growth of the Internet did not
result from increased government involvement but from the opening of the
Internet to commerce and private sector innovation;
Whereas, on June 30, 2005, President George W. Bush announced that the United
States intends to maintain its historic role over the master ``root
zone'' file of the Internet, which lists all authorized top-level
Internet domains;
Whereas the recently articulated principles of the United States on the domain
name and addressing system of the Internet (DNS) are that the Federal
Government will preserve the security and stability of the DNS, will
take no action with the potential to adversely affect the effective and
efficient operation of the DNS, and will maintain the historic role of
the United States regarding modifications to the root zone file, that
governments have a legitimate interest in the management of country code
top level domains (ccTLD), and the United States is committed to working
with the international community to address the concerns of that
community in accordance with the stability and security of the DNS, that
ICANN is the appropriate technical manager of the Internet, and the
United States will continue to provide oversight so that ICANN maintains
focus and meets its core technical mission, and that dialogue relating
to Internet governance should continue in multiple relevant fora, and
the United States encourages an ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders
and will continue to support market-based approaches and private sector
leadership;
Whereas the final report issued by the Working Group on Internet Governance
(WGIG) of the United Nations indicates that an entity affiliated with
the United Nations should assume global governance of the Internet;
Whereas a United Nations taskforce report suggests that, in addition to
terminating the leadership role of the United States with respect to the
Internet, the authority and functions of ICANN should be transferred to
an entity affiliated with the United Nations;
Whereas that report contains recommendations for relegating the private sector
and nongovernmental organizations to an advisory capacity, and some
nations advocating such a change have stated that the private sector and
nongovernmental organizations should have no future role in Internet
governance;
Whereas the European Union has also proposed transferring control of the
Internet to the United Nations, and such a transfer of control of the
Internet would confer significant leverage to the governments of Iran,
Cuba, and China, and would impose an undesirable layer of politicized
bureaucracy on the operations of the Internet that would result in an
inadequate response to the rapid pace of technological change;
Whereas some nations that advocate radical change in the structure of Internet
governance censor the information available to their citizens through
the Internet and use the Internet as a tool of surveillance to curtail
legitimate political discussion and dissent, and other nations operate
telecommunications systems as state-controlled monopolies or highly-
regulated and highly-taxed entities;
Whereas some nations in support of transferring Internet governance to an entity
affiliated with the United Nations, or another international entity,
might seek to have such an entity endorse national policies that block
access to information, stifle political dissent, and maintain outmoded
communications structures;
Whereas the structure and control of Internet governance has profound
implications for homeland security, competition and trade,
democratization, free expression, access to information, privacy, and
the protection of intellectual property, and the threat of some nations
to take unilateral actions that would fracture the root zone file would
result in a less functional Internet with diminished benefits for all
people; and
Whereas the World Summit on the Information Society will meet in November 2005
in Tunisia to discuss the possibility of transferring control of the
Internet to the United Nations or another international entity, and that
summit will likely be the beginning of a prolonged international debate
regarding the future of Internet governance: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) calls on the President to continue to oppose any effort
to transfer control of the Internet to the United Nations or
any other international entity;
(2) applauds the President for--
(A) clearly and forcefully asserting that the
United States has no present intention of relinquishing
the historic leadership role the United States has
played in Internet governance; and
(B) articulating a vision of the future of the
Internet that places privatization over politicization
with respect to the Internet; and
(3) calls on the President to--
(A) recognize the need for, and pursue a continuing
and constructive dialogue with the international
community on, the future of Internet governance; and
(B) advance the values of an open Internet in the
broader trade and diplomatic conversations of the
United States.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text of measure as introduced: CR S11439-11440)
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